In general, shoes such as sneakers, hiking boots, and safety shoes have shoelaces to prevent the shoes from coming off the wearer's feet.
A shoelace is generally tied on the neck of a shoe by passing both ends of the shoelace through a series of holes on the instep and the neck in a zigzag shape and then tying a knot over the neck.
However, it is inefficient in terms of time, and it's troublesome and inconvenient to make a knot every time to tie both ends of a shoelace together, and when the shoelace is untied, an accident may be caused.
In order to solve this problem with a knot, a shoelace binding device composed of a center stopper, side stoppers, and a buckle has been proposed. According to this device, a user pulls and fixes both halves of a shoelace such that he/she can put on and take off a shoe using the center stopper and the side stoppers and then secure the halves using the buckle, whereby the user can tie the shoelace without a knot.
However, the buckle is composed of separable male buckle member and female buckle member, and in order to separate the male buckle member and the female buckle member that are fastened to each other, a user has to simultaneously press elastic arms of the male buckle member exposed through both sides of the female buckle member with the same force. However, it is difficult to hold the buckle when the buckle is in close contact with a shoe and simultaneously press both sides of the male buckle member with the same force.
Further, the center stopper fixes both halves of a shoelace in a close contact state, so it is difficult to individually pull the ends of the shoelace. Further, when the degrees of pulling the ends are different, it is difficult to adjust the ends to be equal.
Further, since the side stoppers fix both ends of a shoelace in a complicated form, it is difficult to separate or replace the shoelace for washing etc.
Accordingly, it is required to supplement and improve the structure of the center stopper, the side stoppers, and the buckle in order to solve the problems with the existing shoelace binding devices.